Sandbox for Miss Austen Regrets;
Miss Austen Regrets is a 2007 BBC drama film, written by Gwyneth Hughes and directed by Jeremy Lovering. It stars Olivia Williams as Jane Austen. Greta Scacchi portrays Jane's sister and confidante Cassandra, Imogen Poots plays her niece Fanny and Phyllida Law is Mrs Austen. It first aired on 21 August 2007 in the United Kingdom.
In the later years of her life, as she's approaching the age of forty, the novelist Jane Austen helps her niece find a husband. Based on her life and letters, Miss Austen Regrets shows Jane Austen's final years. Jane Austen set the standard for romantic fiction, but she never met her own Mr Right and never married.
Jane approaches her fortieth birthday and looks very much happily unmarried. She displays all the trademark wit and charm of her creations, her literary heroines. Her young niece Fanny ask her favourite aunt to evaluate and veto her potential husbands. Jane Austen looks back on her own suitors and contemplates her choice.
The script and lots of the dialogue is based on Austen's letters to her sister Cassandra and to her young niece Fanny Knight.
Gwyneth Hughes found extraordinary and fascinating that Jane Austen did receive a proposal of marriage from a wealthy young family neighbour, which she accepted, but changed her mind after a long night of discussion with her sister Cassandra. She claims that this intriguing decision inspired Miss Austen Regrets.
